Sunday, September 4, 2016

About a year ago, July or August, I was talking to my sister Louise. I was telling her I would be putting two quilts in the East Idaho State Fair, one was Davids Wild Jewels, that I made for him last year. She asked when she was going to get a quilt from me. I had been planning to do a lone star quilt as a gift for Christmas. Her husband is from Texas. She immediately asked for a red and white quilt. My heart sank, because the Lone star quilt was one I had done a few years ago and only needed to be quilted. "Wouldn't you like a nice starburst quilt with yellow and other fall colors?" No, she had her heart set on a red and white quilt. OK...

I didn't have much red in my stash. Orange and red are not my favorite colors. So I started acquiring red fabrics. While doing that, I started looking at patterns and finally decided on a feathered star quilt. I only have a domestic machine, so I usually sew larger quilts in strips, sort of like quilt as you go. David and Mike's quilts were done in strips. I quilt the strips of blocks leaving about 1-2 inches unquilted where the strips join Then I sew the top pieces together, join the batting with strips of lightweight fusible interfacing and then join the backing by hand. Turn it over and finish the quilting over the new seamline, go on to the next strip, etc. This makes a secure join of the strips and is not very noticeable.

Here is the EQuilt pattern:

I did the split between the top and bottom rows of 16 inch star blocks and the center block and its two flanking blocks: 3 widthwise strips to quilt. By the way, the center of the large center star is also a feathered star 9.25 inches square. It replaces the white octagon in the center. I also split the borders and quilted the long side borders after joining the strips. The print I used for the outside border hardly shows the fact that it is in three pieces. As usual, I didn't get a good picture of the quilt when it was finished. I had to mail it right away to get to Virginia in time. Here are the pictures I did take:

Just getting started with the blocks. See the tiny feathered star in the center of the 33 inch center star. I love paper piecing. I used it for all the 16 inch starts too. I used it for the "feathers" of the large star.

Tiny machine, big star. I did feathered circles and half circles in the white spaces.

Above, the joins in the print border are not even noticeable.

These are the best pictures I have of this quilt. I want to do another feathered star (glutton for punishment) and do the center as a color wheel with a different color in each star point, and each outside star in a corresponding color. That's on my bucket list for now.

At one of the quilt guild meetings, I won a packet of 5 inch squares. I generally don't buy anything smaller than fat quarters. I was puzzled what to do with them. The colors were very bright and fun. I looked through my stash and found plain colors that matched the blocks and made little fans. I used a rainbow rickrack on the curves and a piano key border from the solids. It hasn't been quilted yet, but it turned out nice. I showed it off at the next quilt guild meeting. I bought enough of the rainbow rick rack to use in the binding, too.

Here is a quilt I made for my brother David. He is a wildlife biologist for the Forest Service here in southern Idaho. I had the animal picture fabric for years. You never know when something will be just the right fabric! I wish I had a better picture. You can just see the youngest members of the guild holding it up for the guild to see.

When I was just about done with David's quilt, I asked my other brother, Mike, what kind of pattern he was interested in, and he pointed to this quilt, finished and folded on the back of the couch, and said I want that one. I think it is very nice. His version of "very pretty". So I said he could have it on Christmas, when we gave out the presents. Again, I don't have very good pictures.